Senior Devops / Automation Engineer
6-month remote contract (UK) for a Senior DevOps/Automation Engineer at £500–£570/day, delivering automation and DevOps modernisation across IBM Z and distributed platforms. Day-to-day: Python/YAML automation with Ansible (AAP), Jenkins/GitHub CI/CD, PostgreSQL state handling, Grafana/Splunk observability, and HashiCorp Vault secrets management.
- Compensation
- £500–£570 / day
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Devops
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Strong Python development (production quality, modular design, error handling, logging, testing)
- PostgreSQL (schema design, performance tuning, operational usage)
- YAML (clean, structured automation definitions)
- Git and Git-based CI/CD practices
- Jenkins pipeline development (Groovy)
- Enterprise-scale Ansible via Ansible Automation Platform (AAP)
- Grafana dashboard development and metrics interpretation
- Nexus or equivalent artefact repository management
- HashiCorp Vault integration and secrets automation
Nice to have
- IBM Z familiarity (z/OS concepts, JCL, batch scheduling)
- z/OS workflow tooling such as IBM z/OSMF and/or Zowe CLI
- Experience with enterprise schedulers (e.g., IWS patterns)
- Configuration drift management frameworks
- API integration design
- Infrastructure-as-Code governance models
- Observability exporters and metrics pipelines
- Experience in regulated financial environments
Full description
Senior DevOps / Automation EngineerLocation: RemoteContract Length: 6 monthsRate: £500 - £570
Role Purpose
We are delivering a strategic automation and DevOps modernisation programme across IBM Z and distributed platforms. This role will design and engineer production grade automation, CI/CD integration, compliance verification, observability pipelines, and secure orchestration capabilities across a global estate.
You will work across Python, PostgreSQL, Git based workflows, Jenkins pipelines, Ansible orchestration, secrets management, artefact management, and observability tooling to build resilient, auditable and scalable automation services.
Key Responsibilities
- Automation Engineering & Orchestration: Design and build robust automation using Python and YAML. Develop and maintain Ansible playbooks in Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) for production orchestration. Ensure idempotent, restartable and state-aware automation patterns. Integrate automation across distributed and IBM Z platforms (including z/OS job execution patterns where relevant).
- CI/CD & DevOps Toolchain Integration: Build and maintain pipelines in GitHub and Jenkins (including Groovy-based pipeline development). Support Git based workflow design (branching strategy, pull requests, code reviews, tagging and release patterns).
- Observability & Monitoring: Design dashboards and telemetry pipelines using Grafana. Integrate logging/metrics with enterprise observability platforms (e.g. Splunk). Build automated compliance and drift dashboards.
- Data & Persistence: Design schemas and automation state handling in PostgreSQL. Implement run state tracking, job history retention, and audit evidence capture. Optimise queries and data handling for operational reliability.
- Security & Secrets Management: Implement secure secret handling using HashiCorp Vault. Integrate Vault with CI/CD and AAP workflows. Apply least privilege principles and secure credential lifecycle management. Contribute to enterprise standards for secrets, tokens and service accounts.
- Governance, Standards & Compliance: Embed compliance verification into pipelines (automated controls, evidence capture). Contribute to standards for GitHub, Jenkins, AAP and workflow governance. Support configuration drift detection and remediation automation.
Required Technical Skills
Core
- Strong Python development (production quality code, modular design, error handling, logging, testing). PostgreSQL (schema design, performance tuning, operational usage). YAML (clean, structured automation definitions). Git and Git based CI/CD practices. Jenkins pipeline development (Groovy). Experience with enterprise scale Ansible via AAP. Grafana dashboard development and metrics interpretation. Nexus or equivalent artefact repository management. HashiCorp Vault integration and secrets automation.